Spannershield
by Molvanz
Summary: 'Spannershield' is a story about Vimmi, a Gnome. It details her journey from Gnomeregan and the fall, through her life and career in the Stormwind Military. It is an action story mainly, with some elements of romance, it will be violent at points.
1. Chapter One:  Too Early

**Spannershield**

**Part One: The Gnomeregan Incident**

**Chapter One: ... Too Early...**

Vimmi Spannershield was a Gnome. At first glance she was like any other Gnome, bright pink hair that dangled all the way down past her shoulders, bright blue eyes that shimmered with curiosity, darting about in search of the nearest tool or item for the latest invention or plan. However on inspection, perhaps her eyes were a little less bright with ingenuity and a little more sharp with determination than most Gnomes. Perhaps her arms were a little stronger and her mind a little less curious than most others as well.

This was probably because Vimmi's mother was a warrior, not unheard of, but unusual for most Gnomes. She had gone off to fight in the Alliance's wars for her people. She wasn't some hero, in fact she was probably hard to notice among the other soldiers there(however, she would often tell stories of her glory, like any Gnome would). Vimmi had chosen to follow in her footsteps, seeking finesse in fighting, and physical strength over the wit and ingenuity of her Father and brother. Her Mother was a role model, a hero for her, a brave and courageous woman to look up to.

Yet Vimmi was still a Gnome, and like most Gnomes this early in the morning, was draped upside-down in her bed with her mouth hanging open and her feet on her pillow, dreaming about mechanical chickens and maybe even a tasty apple pie. However as she listened to the birds tweeting and the chickens whirring mechanically as she drew closer and closer to her pie, there was an encroaching bothersome noise of some kind. A whirring, a whining, a buzzing that dug into the back of her head like a bug.

Alarms, flashing red lights and loud sirens were heard almost every day in Gnomeregan, whenever an experiment went wrong and something exploded, or someone splattered some corrosive chemical on their arm, or accidentally gave a mechanical gorilla a mind and the overriding purpose to smash things. And so, even if alarms this loud had not been heard in a long time, Vimmi Spannershield still rose out of bed still mostly asleep, mumbling something about 'too early'.

Her eyes shot open when her door was kicked in however and the frightened face of one of her friends greeted her. Sweat had dampened the small amount of hair he had, and brought the rest of his bald forehead to a shine, his quivering fingers did nothing to calm him as he slid them over his head and then used them to support himself on the door frame. His already old face was stricken with panic and fear as he struggled to find words.

"What happened?" Vimmi finally blurted out, since he didn't appear to be talking.

"There are... troggs, everywhere!" he shouted, as if he had suddenly remembered what he was running from, "they're destroying everything! They're killing everyone!"

Vimmi's jaw dropped, only miraculously did she prevent herself from crying out or smacking him and calling him a lunatic. She rolled out of bed, luckily having some clothes on as it had been a cold night previously. "What..." she breathed, "What the hell are you talking about?"

There was a strange gurgle and a clobbering at the other side of the house, Vimmi's friend gasped and stumbled into the room, backing into a corner. "Ahh!" he shouted, "They're already here. They're already here!"

Vimmi took a deep breath, "Relax," she said, taking her wrench from beside her bed. Vimmi had always been cool in stressful situations. She looked up to her mother; she was a fighter, not so much a scientist or engineer. While she didn't have the strange, nearly abnormal intelligence and cunning of some Gnomes, she worked hard, she was brave and she had natural leadership skills. Vimmi was much the same, however her career was a lot less glorious, and her work mostly consisted of watching over her younger brother...

"Tozzle! Where is Tozzle!" she whispered harshly, as if whispering would stop the troggs from finding them. Her voice was more worried now than when he had told her the troggs were here. Tozzle was her responsibility, her brother. Tozzle was all she had left now...

"He's down at Nicky's lab, with Nicky and the crew... he's a lot safer than us."

Vimmi bit her lip and seemed to be formulating a plan, "We have to get Toz-"

"We have to get out of here!" her friend interjected.

"We have to get Tozzle!" Vimmi's voice overpowered the other Gnomes completely, and he fell silent. He was the elder of the two, but he had always acted like a big kid, experimenting with toys and such, and always looked up to most of the other, younger people he knew. Vimmi asked him if he knew how to use a gun, he shook his head.

More thinking... they were running out of time to think. Vimmi paced across the room and closed the door, pulling her dresser over in front of it. Perhaps that would buy some time to think of a plan. However no longer than a second after she let the dresser go, the door shuddered with some massive weight.

Both Gnomes gave a frightened shout, and waited for the second thud to judge how long the door was going to hold...

With another booming smash, they're minds were made up.**  
**

Not long.

Vimmi ripped open the window out of her room, she was lucky to have one of the only windows in the house, "Get out!" she demanded, practically pushing her friend who wasted no time at all in falling out of the window and breaking into a sprint. Vimmi dropped her wrench out and clambered through the frame, she didn't even stop to check on the door.

Her priority was now Tozzle. Ever since her mother and father had passed away, she had been the adult of the family. Tozzle had been hit hard, and he tried to hide it, he tried to keep living normally, but it hit him worst. Vimmi tried to comfort him, and Tozzle had a strange feeling of calm with her, she was like a mother to him... and strangely like a father too.

"I think most of the way to Nicky's Lab is clear from here... we should be able to make it through the back door without confronting any of those... monsters..." Vimmi's friend said with a shaky voice, more with the intention to calm himself than Vimmi, "We'll grab him and go, we have to get out of here, get somewhere safer..."

Vimmi ran after him, the ground punishing every step she took for not putting on shoes. Yet all she could think about was where Tozzle was...


	2. Chapter Two: Responsibility

**Chapter Two: Responsibility**

It had only taken a good five minutes to reach Nicky's lab, and it had taken a few more to break into the locked back door and find their way up to the main room. However it was obvious after mere seconds that they were slightly too late...

Chilling hollers and screams and the crunch of bone, steel and wood thundered through the air as the troggs hammered through the lab, smashing vials, tables and Gnomes wherever they could reach. Vimmi didn't even have time to think whether Tozzle was alive or not, she just moved right into the fray as if she even had a chance, her weapon swinging...

There was a heavy thud as the Gnome slammed her wrench into the back of a troggs head; it fell to the ground in a heap. One more thud and her arm was aching, but she saw what she needed to see. Tozzle was still alive, and he was with one of the Gnome Peacekeepers, who with his wrench and whirligig shield was holding the line, with Tozzle behind him.

Vimmi leapt forward with a burst of energy and shattered a troggs leg, causing it to trip to the ground, where both the Peacekeeper and she removed its threat permanently. They took a third trogg down and there was a brief silence. The Peacekeeper looked up at Vimmi, not even needing to talk for the female Gnome to hear his question.

"Yes, down here... there's an exit through the back..."

"Yes good, we're evacuating Gnomeregan; you have to get to the surface... Do not attempt to rescue friends and family," the Peacekeeper warned, as if he had already told way too many people that today. There was a buzzing as he finished talking, and a light started to glow on a small communications device on his waist, he lifted it up. Vimmi couldn't hear the whole conversation, but she heard the end of it, the electronic tone of the communications device still piercing a hole in her head, _'Get. Out. Immediately.'_

"We're evacuating everyone, the elevators are too dangerous, we've already lost one completely and the others are being overrun, my orders are to take any survivors to the west elevator here, but we are to go up the emergency stairs." The Peacekeeper motioned downstairs, "Lead the way to the back entrance, the west elevator is not far from here."

Vimmi swallowed briefly and looked at Tozzle, who appeared to be too shocked for words. He wasn't usually one to be scared witless in a dangerous situation, so what had him so shaken? "Are you okay Tozzle?"

"Nicky didn't make it," he whispered weakly, "I saw..."

"It's okay," Vimmi interrupted, pulling him closer into her, "tell me about it later, we don't need to talk about that at the moment. Let's just focus on getting out of here for now." With that, Vimmi led the other three back the way herself and her friend had originally come. Her friend had been silent the whole time, simply scared, wanting to run.

Tozzle nodded, letting go of Vimmi and straightening up. While he wasn't as prepared and suited for this situation as Vimmi was, he could handle himself. He was only a year or so younger than her and wasn't the helpless little brother. The Peacekeeper thrust out a hand to heave Vimmi's friend through the window, he then leaned back through to help Vimmi herself and Tozzle up through as well.

There was a cry from across the street. "Help! Please help me!" it was a woman's voice; it came from inside the house opposite Nicky's. Vimmi could hear troggs inside the house as well as whoever was inside there. Vimmi went pale as she realized who it was, it was Terry. Terry was one of her friends too, but more importantly, was her balding friend's wife.

Vimmi turned towards him, ready to tell him not to go... but it was too late.

Her friend sprinted off towards the house, "I have to save her!"

"No!" the Peacekeeper shouted, lunging forward to try and grab the Gnome, but he was too slow. They could only watch as he ran through the front door, several troggs streaming in after him. Vimmi went to move forward but the Peacekeeper managed to grab her. "It's too late, we have to go!"

"We can save him!" she argued.

"It's too late!"

**Crunch**

"It's too late..." the Peacekeeper said again weakly, the blows that presumably killed Terry and her husband, also slamming into the heart's of all three of the still-living Gnomes. "We have to go..."

There were a number of elevators throughout Gnomeregan, they were massive platforms that mostly led to the surface, and if they didn't, they usually led to the top level where you could easily get to the surface. They were wide enough to hold at least fifty Gnomes and could hold a lot more weight; this was often used for transporting planes and tanks for the Alliance Military.

Yet like any intelligently designed electronically-powered lift, there was also a set of stairs near them for emergencies or maintenance. Vimmi, Tozzle and their Gnomish Peacekeeper reached them within a few minutes, thanks to the lack of troggs on the way. Vimmi and Tozzle sprinted up the stairs faster than anyone had ever done before, but something caught the Peacekeepers eye, which caused him to stop.

The elevator...

There were at least fifty Gnomes standing on it, ready to go up. The Peacekeepers blood ran cold as ice as he remembered what his superiors over the communications device had told him.

'_Do __**not **__use the elevators. None of them have made it up to the surface so far. Do __**not**__ use the elevators!'_

"No! Wait! No!" he shouted, running forward, waving his arms above his head. Even before he spoke however, the elevator platform started moving upwards. "Stop! Danger! You'll all die!" he screamed as loud as he could, but they mustn't have been able to hear him over the mechanical grinding of the giant construct. He watched it hopelessly until the ceiling consumed it and their fate was sealed...

**On the platform...**

The whole platform descended into darkness as they passed the ceiling and arrived in the elevator shaft. The power must have been out, because the lights were off. Milly was a Gnomish schoolteacher, she had been the one at the controls of the elevator. She had only just heard the Peacekeepers cries, and only heard enough to presume him simply a desperate man who wanted to get on the elevator. It broke her heart to have to leave him there, but it would take too much time to cancel the lift and take it back down... it was the peacekeeper or the other fifty people on the platform.

Milly heard a thud, and then the most bone-chilling sound she had ever heard. It was the vicious cry of the trogg, followed by a thwack and the sound of a Gnome breaking. Her lips trembled; there was another thud, another, more cries. Twenty... thirty... the troggs were jumping out of holes in the wall and onto the platform.

Milly fell to her knees and blocked her ears. It took ten seconds for a trogg to find her and put her out of her misery. It was the longest ten seconds of her life.

**The Maintenance Shaft...**

Vimmi heaved open the large metal door with her left arm and barrelled out onto the highest floor of Gnomeregan. This whole first level was like a giant airplane hangar; you could sometimes feel the wind or smell the snow, since it was so close to the surface. You could even sometimes see the occasional Dwarf conversing with a Gnome about transporting a tank or plane to Ironforge.

However as Vimmi turned out of the maintenance stairs and into the large hangar, she definitely did not smell snow, she smelt blood. All she could feel was the horrible presence of the mutated troggs. And she definitely could not see any Dwarves. There was a soft thud as Tozzle came out of the maintenance stairs and immediately stumbled to the ground.

In front of them, between them and the exit ramp, was at least twenty troggs, all of them shambling around, some of them were still beating corpses with their clubs or cleavers. Some of them started to notice the two Gnomes. Vimmi didn't seem to care. What could they do against this? They had come so far. She stared blankly forward, her arms limp at her side.

"Vimmi! Vimmi!... Vimmi-Vimmi-Vimmi!" Tozzle shouted in her ear, as the troggs started running towards them. It took a few seconds, but Tozzle seemed to shake Vimmi out of her stun, and she grit her jaw.

"Get behind me Tozzle," Vimmi whispered, lifting her oversized wrench into both of her hands.


	3. Chapter Three: Exodus

_**The end of this Chapter might be a little rushed, but I wanted to finish it tonight, as I'm going to be pressed for time in the coming two weeks, with exams. This is the final chapter of the first part "The Gnomeregan Incident", hopefully I captured the feel I wanted. The pace will probably slow just a little down now, both in update-speed, because I will be studying, and in content, because this next bit is a little slow.**_

_**I wanted to start with some action, but this story unfortunately is not non-stop action. Although I'll try to keep it exciting.**_

_**Also, don't be afraid to offer criticism, I am doing this to get better, so any suggestions or anything will be taken happily. Thanks for reading, and enjoy.**_

**Chapter Three: Exodus**

Either everything was going in slow motion, or the troggs were advancing very slowly. Vimmi would take one step back, and the raw-red flesh of her foot would protest against the movement. The gentle pad of retreat would echo through the hangar, and back at her with the thud of twenty troggs taking one step forward. She was running out of room. Another step, now she could feel the cold metal of the wall pressed against her back, the door was just to her side.

But what was the point in running? There was nowhere else she could go, they needed to escape and this was the only way. If they went back now the rest of the troggs would kill them, the only chance was to fight.

"Vimmi!"

Vimmi snapped back to reality, a bone-club was rushing towards her. She adjusted her wrists and parried the blow, however the force jarred her arm, and she couldn't hold the wrench up, and it fell lazily down to the side. It was about to take its second blow, obviously not affected at all by Vimmi's block. Vimmi and Tozzle could both only stare, neither of them able to do anything.

"Yah!" there was a rush of movement next to Vimmi, and a small blue and white figure slammed into the trogg, sending it to the ground. It was the Peacekeeper. More movement, next to her another six peacekeepers streamed out of the maintenance stairs. So this was it then, the whole town of Vimmi's was evacuated or dead, they just had to get out now.

A few of the Peacekeepers had the whirligig shield and wrench that the first one had, but the others had large Gnomish guns in their hands. The ones with the shields would charge right into battle while the others blew apart the troggs from behind their better armored brothers.

One of the Gnomes pushed into the mess of troggs, swiftly followed by his brothers. They had to move together and quickly, smash open the trogg lines and have their allies with the guns bring down the disorganized monsters. The first Gnome ducked down under a swing, and brought his shield up in a vicious motion, knocking the offending trogg backwards. He followed through with a wild swing of his wrench, causing two other troggs to either be hit or stumble backwards.

The sound of gunfire ripped open the air and three troggs fell into pools of their own blood. The three Gnomes who had shot them, were already swiftly reloading for another barrage. The troggs were massive, and frenzied, and in a tow to tow fight Gnomes had a severe disadvantage. But the troggs were primitive, Gnomes were extremely advanced, they had to use their technology against them.

Vimmi growled, it was painful being so helpless. She could only clutch her arm as the peacekeepers destroyed the troggs, and she nearly cried out in pain when one of them fell. One of the gunmen had winged a trogg, which had flailed wildly and clipped one of the peacekeepers in the back of the head; he fell to the ground and was quickly bashed by the other troggs around him.

This sort of loss was devastating to the plan of the Gnomes, as if they were down a man or two, they could not distract and disorganize all the troggs at once. This was proved, as several troggs, no longer occupied by the fallen Gnome, sprinted off towards the gunmen. Vimmi's eyes widened and her mind screamed _'Do something!' _but she was frozen to the spot.

The troggs swarmed one of the gunmen and he didn't even get a shot off, before he was smashed down into the ground. The others however, ripped open the troggs from point blank range. One of the Gnomes didn't even reload after the shot, he just flipped the gun and held it by the barrel, slamming it with a vengeance into the closest trogg, and following through with a kick to the troggs midsection.

Suddenly, Tozzle ran forward and fell near the body of the fallen Gnome. Vimmi cried out to come back, but he didn't. The Gnome took the gun from the fallen peacekeeper and pointed it at the closest trogg. The shot kicked his gun upwards and he had to take a step back to steady himself, anyone who had never fired a gun before would have been thrown off their feet. However Tozzle had often practiced with guns, in fact it was one of the main things he studied, so he was ready for it.

Vimmi clenched her teeth; she was not going to be the only one not helping. The Gnome took a deep breath and then moved forward, past Tozzle to the Gnome that had fallen first. "Yahh!" she shouted, lunging forward with her wrench to scatter the troggs around the body, just for a moment. Vimmi then ducked in, took the shield from the body and readjusted herself into something of a combat position.

It took them a few minutes and another two Gnomes to kill all the troggs. One of the shield-peacekeepers had glanced a blow off a trogg, and was punished severely for it with a blow to the back. One of the troggs had then broken out of the line again and brought down one of the ranged peacekeepers.

All that was left now was Vimmi, Tozzle, the Peacekeeper that had been with them since Nicky's lab, and one ranged peacekeeper. Vimmi fell to her knees... again. She struggled to control her breathing, while she had trained and learnt about combat, she had never experienced a real danger situation like this, and wasn't used to how exhausting it was. The peacekeepers were exhausted too, but they were better at hiding it.

There was a mechanical grinding; it started before anyone could even suggest they leave. All four remaining Gnomes turned to find the sound. It was the elevator; it was finally reaching the top floor of Gnomeregan. It was a very slow moving lift as you had to be careful with the equipment they were transporting usually. The grinding stopped as the platform leveled out and the large dome that stopped people falling down the lift when it wasn't on the top floor was lifted.

Vimmi's heart fell. Tozzle dropped his gun and started to shake. Standing on the platform, on top of the bodies of half of Vimmi's town, was another wave of troggs, more than last time. Vimmi let her wrench fall to the ground and her eyes watered.

"No..." the Peacekeeper from the lab breathed. The troggs didn't wait this time, they charged right for the group. He reached into his clothes and pulled out a silver chain, it had a locket on the bottom; he shoved it into Vimmi's hand. "When you get to Ironforge, find Nefti..." He released the locket and immediately turned back to the battle.

"Yahhhh!" he shouted, running forward, "Run!" he shouted back to the other three Gnomes.

The second peacekeeper turned to Vimmi and Tozzle, "Run, don't let our lives be a waste." He then blasted a hole through a trogg, shouting out insults at the top of his voice, he needed to give Vimmi and Tozzle a window to escape. "Come and get me ya big smelly brutes!" he threw his gun with the last words and took a wrench from his belt.

His communications device crackled, it was damaged in the fight. He took it from his belt and threw it to the side, it was useless now. Only small amounts of voice could be heard through the static, and he knew that it didn't matter whatever they said, this was the end.

'_...vents...out...radiation...danger... get out...'_

The two peacekeepers were saved the torment of dying of radiation or being twisted into lepers, the troggs had granted them this mercy. The first fell to a barrage of blows from all directions, the second was hit and fell to his knee. He glanced up at the trogg who was about to kill him, and in his eyes burned defiance, he would not die trembling...

Vimmi and Tozzle stumbled out of Gnomeregan, falling to their knees in the snow. The outside wind was silent and still for them. The snow beneath froze Vimmi's hands and brought her bones to pain, but she was too exhausted to get up. Her mind was still reeling, still refusing to believe that today had just happened.

"What is happening Tozzle?" she asked.

"I don't know..." he whispered back, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid breaking into tears.

Scattered around Gnomeregan were many survivors of the incident, most of them collapsed in the snow, some of them crying either in pain or in loss, and some were pacing, confused as to what to do. They poured out of any entrance they could find, but one thing was clear, there was very few of them.

"We have to get to Ironforge," Vimmi said strongly as she clutched the pendant in her hand. She would honour the Peacekeepers wish, he had sacrificed himself to save the two of them. "We have to tell the Dwarves." Vimmi stood, somehow through the pain and exhaustion she stood and helped Tozzle to his feet with her.

The two of them then began slowly walking, even limping in exhaustion, east, towards Ironforge. Those who saw the two of them, also forced themselves to stand and hobbled after them. "Does Ironforge even know what happened?" one of them asked, his face wide with worry.

"I don't know..." she answered.

"No..." answered another Gnome nearby, this one was clutching his hip, a large dry stain of blood marked where he must have been injured, "Even if a messenger had left just as this started, Ironforge would not have received word by now. It will take us the rest of the day to arrive, and that is if we don't all die of this dreadful cold."

"We can make it, we'll get to Ironforge and they'll send people out to help those who cannot come with us now." Vimmi wasn't so sure that what she was saying was true, but it helped a little, and the Gnome who had been panicking seemed to have relaxed a little.

The survivors of Gnomeregan made their way slowly through Dun Morogh towards Ironforge. The only sound was the sad shuffle of their feet, and the stifled cries of those who were injured. Luckily, even though injured, their large numbers prevented any wolves or bears from trying to take a snap at them, and they shuffled without interruption.


	4. Chapter Four: Seein' Gnomes

**Urgh. I'm sorry about this massive delay, I'm really being pounded in this last week before the exam. This Chapter is a little slow, and short, but hopefully after exams in 5 odd days, I will be able to sit down for a good few hours and get a decent chapter up. If you're reading this, thanks for reading, I'll get the next chapter up in at most a week.**

**Part Two: A New World**

**Chapter Four: Seein' Gnomes**

A soft wind pushed the escapees of Gnomeregan forward towards Ironforge. Perhaps it felt mercy, or perhaps it was just a gentle wind. It had a small amount of bite from the hills around, but the Gnomes had far more on their mind than the weather. Each of them still felt the bite one feels when they lose a majority of their people. Each of them felt the sore pain of having to flee, leaving their possessions, even their families behind.

Meanwhile, this sorrow, and this sick feeling, was nowhere to be found among the Dwarves of Ironforge. Most were continuing with everyday life, all unaware of the plight that had fallen upon Gnomeregan. Dwarves wandered about selling their wares, forging armour and weapons, crafting and exploring.

Outside the great mountain, the vigilant Mountaineers watched over Dun Morogh. They warded off the occasional wolf or bear that threatened travellers. They also delivered news quite often and gave information to adventurers or merchants. This life often left them with a lot of spare time, and spare time for Dwarves often led to...

"Beer," one such mountaineer exclaimed, as he took a mug that was passed to him.

"Yer eyes are bigger than yet liver Baerlan," another Mountaineer warned, "Five is too much, even fer a keg like yerself."

"I'm no sissy," Baerlan replied. He wasn't an actual mountaineer, generally being a drunk reduced employment opportunities especially in careers of discipline. As if he needed to prove the fact that he could drink more alcohol than healthy, he tipped the jug up and sent the thick Dwarven liquid down his throat (or, in his beard as most of it did).

"Well, you sure showed me," the Mountaineer next to Baerlan commented, shaking his head in disbelief as he waited a few moments to see if the drunken dwarf would fall or stay standing. Disbelief that someone could consume so much alcohol and still stand, and disbelief that someone could actually willingly consume so much alcohol. Now, any self respecting Dwarf would say there's no such thing as too much alcohol. But when you were at a forward post, where the majority of your day was spent cautiously warding off bears, there was such a thing as too much alcohol.

Baerlan proved this, as he stumbled over and used a fence to prop himself up. He actually looked quite awkward; half perched up, staring off into the distance, cocking his head as if he was looking at something interesting. "I... I think I... lil' bit too much..." he stuttered, almost at the point where he was going to fall over.

"Ya think?" the Mountaineer rolled his eyes, moving forward to help Baerlan up.

"I'm seein' Gnomes," he almost cried out.

"What?" the Mountaineer exclaimed, sighing yet again. One of his cousins had once started seeing Gnomes, they had to cart him off to Stormwind to find a priest, while he babbled about kodos. "Get up you old foo..." he trailed off as he saw what Baerlan was looking at. "What?" he whispered again, his jaw dropping as he too was "seein' gnomes."

The Mountaineer dropped Baerlan and took a step forward, "Gnomes?" he questioned, as if he was wanting a confirmation that they were indeed not a hallucination.

Vimmi happened to be at the front of the group, and she was actually disoriented enough to barely even notice the others, only intending to march to Ironforge and tell them, before falling into a heap and sleeping for a week. However they seemed to follow her like a leader, they were all as scared and lost as she was. Tozzle almost didn't stop staring at her, he thought she was more like her mother than ever, marching on even when she should have fallen long ago.

"Help..." was all Vimmi could gather from her shattered thoughts.

"By Magni's beard, what happened?" the Mountaineer asked, moving forward nearly stunned.

"Gnomeregan has fallen," Vimmi moaned, falling to her knees in admittance of the fact. Behind her, the injured moaned, some of them falling to their knees too. Some of them were even crying, almost as if it hadn't happened until now, when Vimmi had said it. As if they were too lost to even realize today's events, until now.

The Mountaineer's eyes widened, "By the titans," he breathed again, his fingers stumbling and clutching for a horn on his belt. He lifted it up to his lips and blew a trembling blast, before adjusting his grip and blowing a proper one. It only took a minute for a messenger to sprint down towards the Dwarf from up near Ironforge. He was ready for this often, most of the time the message was something along the lines of: "We have a bear carcass, fetch someone to cook it." However today, it was a lot worse.

"Yes, what is i..." the messenger trailed off too, "What the..."

"Go tell Ironforge!" the Mountaineer snapped, "Make lodgings and food and shelter, Gnomeregan has been lost, tell the King!"

The Messenger turned and stumbled into sprint, his mind racing as fast as his legs. He shouted out to the other Mountaineers on the way, who reacted by running down the hill also, to help the Gnomes up to Ironforge before they froze to death. All of them shivering and moaning, as ice slicked over their wounds and their breath frosted at their little mouths.


End file.
